The ever-present dragon-loving masses can’t stop gushing over HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, which has wrapped up its excellent first season. Season 1 has already done enough to cement its legacy as one of the hottest shows of the year, but perhaps that’s not unexpected when it borrowed plenty of inspiration from its globally popular sister series.
While chatting with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Ryan Condal revealed that prior pulse-pounding seasons of Game of Thrones — specifically seasons 3 to 6 — were the benchmark for HBO’s latest series, which focuses on an abundance of colorful characters and a scope for plenty of dragon-riding adventures.
I don’t know if the Dance of the Dragons will ever have the sprawl that the original Game of Thrones did, simply because of North of the Wall and Esso and all these other places that it went. But certainly the season that we’re writing, the rhythms of this show are going to feel much more like a middle season — seasons 3-6 of Game of Thrones — in terms of its scope and breadth and the number of characters.
In the same vein, Condal openly wondered whether House of the Dragon will ever compete with Game of Thrones’ overwhelming success. Nevertheless, Condal has already revealed that he, along with co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik, have begun to discuss ideas and write plot points for season two. With war now here and both Greens and Blacks having dragons on their side, we should expect some truly apocalyptic times ahead for Westeros.
Only time will tell just how popular house of the Dragon becomes, although diehards will be glad to know that season two has already been confirmed to be in the works and is eyeing a major return in 2024. For now, folks can binge through the entire first season of House of the Dragon on HBO Max.